A total of 14 women who were in An Grianán training centre post-1980 and worked in the attached High Park Magdalene laundry in Dublin have yet to receive a provisional offer for redress from Mr Flanagan’s department.

Just seven of the 97 women who applied to the widened Magdalene redress scheme have received a payment.

A group of women in dispute with the Department of Justice over the dates they worked in Dublin’s High Park Magdalene laundry has written directly to Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan asking him to intervene.

Over the next few years, we will find ourselves in a whirlwind of War of Independence centenary commemorations. It was a nationwide fight for freedom and here the rebel streets of Cork city heaved with revolution.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that women wrongly excluded from the Magdalene Laundries redress scheme will be receive redress payments “without delay”.

A memorial walk will take place to raise awareness of the disease Martin McGuinness died from.

The Ombudsman has been scathing of the Department of Justice over the Magdalene redress scheme and its ‘inexcusable’ treatment of survivors, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

A bitter nine-month behind the scenes row with the Department of Justice led the Ombudsman to launch an investigation into the “possible maladministration” of the Magdalene redress scheme.

Two former residents of An Grianán training centre will learn today if the High Court will allow them to be admitted to the Magdalene redress scheme. During the case, it was revealed that the Ombudsman was already formally investigating the scheme. Conall Ó Fátharta reveals the extraordinary nine-month row between the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice which could have far-reaching consequences for the scheme

Clare Federation is always up for fun ways to promote Irish, so it’s no surprise that their summer meeting featured a free game of Bingo with numbers called ‘trí Ghaeilge’.

A Wexford woman, who spent teenage summers learning Irish in Ring where she was never off the céilí dance floor, is the national winner in a new ICA competition sponsored by Gael Linn.

A hand-sewn teddy bear made from a sweatshirt, a christening gown up-cycled from an old wedding dress and a crocheted bag made out of plastic bags – these were just three of the entries to the new ICA up-cycling competition, with prizes awarded at the recent national AGM.

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Pieta House, the suicide and self-harm crisis centre, received over €3,000 at Cork Federation’s AGM in Watergrasshill earlier this month.

Mid-Cork vice-president Ena Howell is well known for awareness-raising around mental wellbeing. 

Photos of Clare Federation committee members in their youth — this represented a novel round of questioning at the federation table quiz held in early March in Ennis.

A woman who claims she was forced to work unpaid in a Magdalene laundry for 10 years has challenged the minister for justice’s decision excluding her from the State’s redress scheme for victims of those institutions.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has reiterated that An Grianán “served a different purpose” to High Park Magdalene laundry — despite HSE evidence stating they were “one and the same thing”.

The Ombudsman has been criticised for its “bizarre” reasoning in refusing to uphold appeals from former residents of An Grianán seeking access to the Magdalene redress scheme.

CARRICK-ON-SUIR ICA Guild in South Tipperary won the Betty Manning National Award last year.

CORK’S winter federation meeting, held in Burnfort Primary School a fortnight before Christmas, was hosted by Mourne Abbey ICA, who describe themselves as a guild with a big heart — with plenty of justification.

A CANOVEE guild member has won the national ICA Trophy for Reporting.

IN its 30-year existence, Derryquay ICA Guild — located five miles west of Tralee — has had a big involvement in its local community.

GOLEEN ICA Guild used to be part of Schull ICA, until they realised in 2001 they had enough members to form their own local guild.

ONE of the biggest ever gatherings of members of the Cork Federation of the ICA was held earlier this month.

THE Cork autumn federation meeting was hosted by Ballyclough, a guild in north Cork which was formed in 1964.

NOT every organisation can boast two garden parties in the one week.

BARRYROE guild members held their AGM on June 6. Mary McCarthy and Eileen O’Leary, information officers, attended.

Donegal Creameries PLC today announced a drop in operating profits form €0.6m to €0.1m for 2005, blaming price pressures on commodity dairy products for the fall.